Is it possible that Hollywood is playing a prank on us? Could producers out in LA be messing around and having a laugh at our expense? I am starting to think that it is well within the realm of probability that directors are intentionally making awful movies just to see if we will keep paying to go see them.

“Your Highness” supports my suspicion that Hollywood is yanking us around. It was a movie beyond bad, and staying in the theater was an exercise in patience for this reviewer.

There was no clear purpose to anything that was happening on the screen. The plot follows two princes, played by James Franco and Danny McBride, who embark on a quest to retrieve Franco’s bride from an evil wizard. Along the way they are joined by Natalie Portman’s character, a sexy warrior on a mysterious quest of her own.

“Your Highness” set its self up well to parody a whole genre of Fantasy films, from “Clash of the Titans” to “Lord of the Rings” but it didn’t deliver. It could have been another stoner comedy like “Pineapple Express” but it never really went there. It just fell flat.

The humor in this comedy was weak too. Throwing expletives in the middle of medieval sounding sentences actually isn’t that funny. It was the first time –but not the fifteenth. The sexist humor was overwhelmingly bad. All the other jokes just didn’t make sense or felt forced.

Portman is an Oscar winning actress who usually brings some depth to her roles even if the script is bad. She didn’t bring anything to “Your Highness” but sex appeal. Franco is one of my favorite actors, and I had faith that he could deliver no matter what he did. I am starting to think that Franco’s career is part of a big performance piece, like Joaquin Phoenix’s rap career; it will all make sense in a few years. Even with nudity, drugs, gratuitous violence, and excessive foul language, this movie is still hard to stay awake through.